旦暮庁 TANBO-CHŌ

Adapting Kimono & Yukata into Medieval Japanese Clothes

This is a great way to get started with wardrobe basics on a tight budget. In some cases, the already-made clothing will be cheaper than if you bought the fabric and thread and sewed the garment yourself. The caveat, however, is that Japanese sizes are not American sizes, and Japanese clothing in the medieval period was much more ‘oversized’ that it is now.

This strategy will get you looks that are contemporary to the Muromachi and Momoyama periods, as depicted below.

Feminine
Jidai Matsuri Photo – Ladies wearing Kosode
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Maple Viewers
16th Century
Kano Hideyori
Masculine
A tea seller & client
Maple Viewers
16th Century
Kano Hideyori
Miyamoto Musashi (Self Portrait)
(Even great warriors don’t need pants)
Early 17th Century
Maple Viewers
16th Century
Kano Hideyori

The basic garment that everyone is wearing, sometimes under some accessory layers, is called a kosode (小袖). Discussing the history of the kosode and its construction is beyond this purchasing guide.

The kosode is a unisex garment, in that the tailoring does not change based on the gender, however, certain colors and patterns may communicate things about the wearer. In period, lower class kosode were made mostly of hemp and ramie; higher class were made of silk and very finely spun hemp and ramie for hot weather.

Here is a comparison of the shape of a kosode (left) vs a kimono (right):

Some important differences:

  • the kosode has a wider collar
  • the kosode has wider body panels
  • the kosode has more rounded sleeve curves
  • the ratio of the sleeve to body ratio is different
  • not depicted, but kosode do not have a middle of the back seam horizontally, while kimono have this for tailoring purposes.
  • not depicted, but kimono often have an extra piece of fabric on the collar called a collar guard. This is a premodern innovation, after the medieval period.
  • the kimono is longer; it is meant to be worn folded up for women

There is another garment called a katabira. This garment is made of hemp, unlined, and has a profile that is a little more similar to a kimono. It is a casual garment for the upper class, and a working person’s garment.

Two katabira from in period, above, and below, an illustration of the difference in proportion between katabira and kosode.

It is much easier to approximate a katabira with a modified modern kimono or yukata than it is to approximate a kosode; this is because the sleeve to body proportions of a katabira are much closer to modern kimono proportions. In fact, the common fabric bolt width for katabira, about 35 cm, is much closer to a modern cloth shaku bolt, which is about 38 cm, than kosode bolt width, which was approximately 45 cm.

So, go shopping with the idea of approximating a katabira instead of a kosode.

Purchasing a Yukata

Yukata are light, unlined informal garments meant to be worn to summer festivals and bathing springs. In period, they were mostly used as bathrobes and were cut like katabira, though sometimes the sleeves were left open instead of curved.

Yukata are cheap, and often go on sale in the summer. They are excellent for hot-weather outdoor events, in that they are washable, cheap, and machine sewn, so they are durable to all kinds of abuse. They have the advantage of being affordable new, which means that if you are sensitive to the smell of mothballs or musty fabric that often accompanies vintage kimono, you can sidestep the issue and buy new yukata instead. You can also buy used yukata, often very inexpensively, if you don’t mind cleaning them and de-odorizing them. They also tend to come in larger sizes than vintage kimono.

Unless you have a very small frame, you will almost certainly want a plus size yukata. As discussed above, a drapier look is more appropriate to the medieval period. Additionally, you will want to be able cross your legs and sit on the ground modestly, as was common in period. To do this, you will need a bigger size.

If you want the least work and the biggest sizes, buy men’s yukata. Men’s yukata are a little shorter, which means they often don’t need to be tailored lengthwise, and additionally they usually run a little bigger. A 3L men’s yukata will usually be bigger than a 3L women’s. It’s absolutely fine to wear a men’s yukata as a woman, and some of the patterns are very flattering. Additionally, because the sleeves are already sewn together (mostly), it is much easier to tailor them to a medieval shape. Women’s sleeves are semi-detached in modern yukata, and you have to gently rip the seam and sew part of it back together for a medieval look, and sometimes you have to take the hem up as well.

Patterns

As for the pattern, solid colors are always a safe bet. All shades of blue, especially light blue, were a common choice in period for katabira because indigo was a practical dye for hemp and ramie, but most of the commonly sold solid colors are suitable. Very dark colors may be hot in the sun, so consider black and deep navy carefully.

In period, horizontal stripes, tatewaku – vertical waves, large scale shibori, stencil resist, and check patterns are all good patterns, and I have included some examples below. All of these yukata are ready-made patterns that were sold recently, prices ranging from $15 to $150.

In contrast, really modern patterns will stand out and look unusual in a medieval setting. These include: vertical stripes (though they did exist, they were just rare), complex modern screen-printed patterns, kanako (small dot) shibori and modern itajime shibori, western themes like roses or daffodils, and compositions where the design is placed diagonally on the sleeves and hem (this is more for kimono, but dance yukata will also have this issue). Here are some examples to avoid:

Yukata Stores

Most yukata sold in the west, especially new, are going to be extremely expensive compared to their price in Japan. I strongly recommend making an account on a proxy shipping service, like zenmarket or buyee, and shipping everything together at once.

To shop on Japanese sites without speaking Japanese, use the translation extension in your browser. My personal preference is Chrome with the google translate extension. On many of the sites, there is a filter for size, new/used condition, and color or pattern that should auto-translate as well.

Here are the Japanese sites I recommend for purchasing yukata:

If you are in a hurry and don’t have the extra few days international shipping can take, and are located in the US, Ohio Kimono sells imported new and old yukata.

Purchasing a Kimono

A new kimono is going to be very expensive, but used kimonos are in oversupply in Japan. Almost all of them are going to be too small for most americans, but sometimes you get lucky.

If you are a larger size, it’s helpful to use search terms like キングサイズ (king size) and
クイーンサイズ (queen size)、and ゆとりサイズ (roomy size) to find kimono that fit, or enter in your neck to sleeve length (also called yuki/裄 in japanese) in centimeters like this: 裄75 or 裄 75 (for a 75 cm neck to sleeve length), or your size like Ｌサイズ or LL サイズ or 3L サイズ . Alternatively, some stores specify sizes for searching, like Rakuten. Because I am almost six feet tall, I am a 3L in men’s kimono, so do not be intimidated by the size. Feel free to shop outside your gender – most larger kimono are made for men.

Although it’s tempting to buy a small kimono even if you are taller or wider than the measurements, you will be most comfortable and find it easiest to move in a garment that fits. Just so that you can understand how big of a garment you might be looking for, I’ll provide an example of an appropriately sized used kimono for me. I am a women’s small or medium in most american stores (even the expensive ones), but I am 5’11” and my 裄 is 78 or longer if I want to look rich and drapey.

Here is a linen kimono in my size. Look at the model they are using. It is listed as 2L!

Measurements are listed as 裄74+0ｃｍ可、身丈147、袖丈52+0、前幅30、後幅32ｃｍ、袖幅37ｃｍ.


Used Kimono Stores

If you are in a hurry and don’t have the extra few days international shipping can take, and are located in the US, Ohio Kimono sells imported secondhand kimono.

Adapting the Garment

Once your garment arrives, there are two alterations you can sew to make it look more historical.

First, and most importantly, you can alter the sleeve shape and attachment. This is a simple alteration, and can be done by hand for a delicate silk kimono or by sewing machine on a machine-sewn yukata. Sleeves in period were most commonly fully attached, or left open only a few centimeters at the very bottom. For the most part, the large underarm openings were for children or young, unmarried women, or performers.

If your garment is for a woman, it will have dangling sleeves with a gap at the armpit. If you have a machine sewn yukata, you can carefully remove the seams that finish the fabric around the opening, and sew the sleeve back into the garment with a machine or by hand with a running stitch. If you have a kimono or a hand sewn yukata, you can sew it closed by hand with a simple ladder stitch. Make sure that the sleeve is at a comfortable height for you to tie your belt closed; if it dangles too low, you can fold the sleeve length or cut it before shortening it, depending on the quality and cost of your garment.

If you have a men’s garment, it should be fully attached. Sometimes men’s garments have a small, closed off portion of detached sleeve. You can pick the seam open around the closed dangling sleeve so it can be inserted back in, or simply re-sew the sleeve curve higher because it’s usually only a few centimers, and usually to accomodate the belt position anyway.

Next, the sleeve curve. I have made some image files of sleeve curves in period. You can scale them with the graphics editing program of your choice, or use the scale function included with your printer interface. They are for my sleeve width, taken from historical examples. Please scale to the width of the sleeve, not the height of the sleeve – they are only the bottom curve.

Simply resew the sleeve curve on the garment inside out. For a kimono that is lined, you will need to do this twice, for the lining and the face. This is a more advanced alteration. You may be able to get away with simply basting the curve into place with the kimono turned inside out. If you are a novice sewer, please get the help of the local sewing guild, or barter with a friend. It’s a simple alteration with a small amount of experience under your belt, but difficult for your first ever project.

The kosode sleeve is for silk garments, but keep in mind that the sleeves cut in period only came from the elbow, so you may want to only print out the sleeve curve to be about the width of your forearm to get the right look.

The katabira sleeve is for bast fiber and cotton garments; it can usually be printed to the full width of the sleeve, which should be from the centerpoint between the shoulder and elbow to your wrist.

Kosode Curve (For Silk/Kimono)
Katabira Curve (For Plant Fibers/Yukata)

If you find printing a pattern intimidating, a very large dinner plate – 10″ or more – or a serving platter – makes a good curve. Notice that the kosode is more of a big dinner plate shape, and the katabira is more of an oblong serving platter.

Finally, the hem on women’s garments is usually too long to wear comfortably. If you bought an elegant pattern for court wear, a little bit of trailing is okay, but modern kimono are meant to be folded around the waist and the amount excess fabric can be too much. For a yukata, this is relatively simple to take in by hand or on the machine with a blind stitch. For a kimono, this is a more complicated alteration, especially if it is lined. If you can blouse the kimono slightly with your obi the way the women in the parade have done, that is usually a better strategy than retailoring the hem of a lined kimono.

If your silk kimono hem is truly ridiculously long, you can take it up by hand with some silk thread and careful seam ripping. Pay attention to how the seam was constructed as you rip it; you won’t be able to make the exact same stitches, but it should give you an idea of how to proceed. If you have never sewn before, this is somewhat of an intermediate project, so consider buying a men’s kimono that fits better instead.

Men’s kimono usually are cut to ankle length and can be bloused or worn as is.

Underclothing

Unless your persona is very lower class, they would have had at least one visible undergarment on, and most of the time this garment was white. Many natural dyes used historically are ph sensitive, and so sweat would damage the dye. Therefore, undergarments close to the skin tended to be white. Often multiple undergarments would be worn, but the purpose of this guide is to have a simple starter outfit. The very base layers would not be seen anyway, so they’re not necessary.

A simple, modern juban, which is worn under the modern kimono, makes a decent base layer. You will want to buy with the same sort of sizing in mind that you did for your top layer; you can also buy half juban that come in t shirt sort of styles. Do not buy a too small juban, it will restrict your movement and cause wardrobe malfunctions.

Juban come in many materials and shapes, used and new. In general, match plant fiber juban to plant fiber top layers, and rayon and silk to protein top layers. You can often find used silk ones for cheap in the same stores as used kimono in an adjacent category. You can also buy cotton, linen, and rayon ones new on Rakuten. I do not recommend polyester juban, they do not breathe and retain odors, even if they are marked coolpass or special cooling toray or whatever.

For yukata, the collar is often omitted on their juban because it is a modern bathing robe. Since the goal is to have a visible white collar, don’t buy these. Sometimes, it is cheaper and easier to buy a large whitish colored yukata and tack a pure white collar (just a white strip of fabric) to it than to find a cheap full length plus size cotton juban. These are often sold for men in the summer.

You may need to make the same tailoring adjustments as above.

If buying an underlayer is unaffordable to you, or you’re wearing clothes in the hot summer, it’s acceptable to fake a collar by wrapping a piece of folded cloth to mimic the collar. This can be made pretty easily with some inexpensive quilting cotton, especially a small yardage cut of the wider quilt backings. They can also be purchased in Japan, and are called うそつき 衿 or usotsuki eri. Take a look at how they work:

All of these options are available affordably on Rakuten, Amazon.jp, and Yahoo Shopping. I personally recommend getting new underwear in a washable fabric if it’s at a price you can tolerate. Clean, fresh underwear is a form of self care, and it will protect your fancy top layers from sweat and odor.

Juban

Men’s – Amazon JP
Women’s – Amazon JP
Men’s – Rakuten
Women’s – Rakuten

White Men’s YUKATA

Amazon JP
Rakuten

Usotsuki Eri – FakE Collar

Rakuten
Amazon Jp

Tying it all Together

Obi

You will need something to tie together your outfit, and possibly your underlayer as well. In Japan, the belt that ties together the kosode or katabira is called an obi, which simply translates to belt. It is a sewn fabric rectangle that wraps around your waist twice and is then knotted in a simple fashion.

In the medieval period, obi, or belts, were narrower than most modern belts sold in Japan today – ranging from 1″ to 3″ wide instead of 4″ and wider. However, modern belts sold for festivals and dancing are narrower like medieval obis.

As an aside, this is one of the simplest and cheapest pieces to construct yourself, and a great beginner sewing project. If you want to make an obi, you can find a guide here.

If you got a simply patterned yukata, there are simple hemp obi here that are perfectly medieval. Make sure the length is sufficient for your waist measurement doubled with a knot, otherwise you will only be able to wrap once. You can buy two and sew them together if you need a longer obi.

If you want something fancier or cheaper, these thin obi are often called 半纏帯 (hanten obi), or 祭帯 (matsuri obi).

Here are some examples of good, medieval looking obi that are for sale on Rakuten. Look for sewn pieces of fabric joined together, not woven tubes, in patterns that are plausibly medieval Japanese. Check the listing’s width to make sure you’re not getting a normal yukata obi that’s too wide, and the length to be sure you’re not getting a headband obi.

Here are some examples of obis to avoid: modern patterns, woven tubes, and a special variant of woven tube obi (the dusty pink one) that evolved later that is a modern pattern even though it looks very medieval.

Matsuri Obi

Rakuten
Amazon

Hanten Obi

Rakuten
Amazon

Once you have your obi, loop it around your waist twice and tie it with a simple square knot or butterfly knot.

Koshihimo – Underclothing Belts

Japanese clothing belts the underlayer separately from the overlayer. This helps with modesty and keeps you looking neat and put together. It also makes it much easier to get dressed.

This is a good video of a koshihimo and how it is worn:

Fortunately, the underclothing belt, called koshihimo, is very cheap and affordable. You can make one yourself, out of cheap quilting cotton or even an old cotton or linen robe belt if it’s long enough. If you don’t have one of those, they are available for purchase very affordably on Rakuten and Amazon. Even the silk ties are relatively cheap. Once again, check the length and make sure it’s right for your body. Because the belt is hidden, feel free to chose a pattern that makes you happy.

Koshihimo – Rakuten
Koshihimo – Amazon

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